Author(s): Bulelwa Nguza-Mduba, Emmanuel Mutambara
The aim of the study was to examine whether small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the tourism sector in the Eastern Cape Province (ECP) employed intuitive competitive intelligence (ICI) to succeed in the business world. The study objectives were to determine practices that assisted SMTEs in the ECP, to succeed in the business world; ascertain how SMTEs enterprises’ characteristics in the ECP affected their ICI; investigate whether external forces influenced the ICI practices of SMTEs in the province; identify a framework that could be developed to enhance understanding and research on ICI practices for SMTEs’ entrepreneurial success in the ECP, to mention a few. The study employed a quantitative design comprising of 100 business owners, 30 public body officials in the respective municipalities and 99 tourists, totalling 299 participants. For SMTEs sampling was done through random sampling, for public body officials, purposive sampling was used, while for tourists, convenience sampling was employed. The empirical data was gathered using a semi-structured questionnaire that was distributed and administered to the aforementioned participant groups. The quantitative data analysis was done using the SPSS, in which descriptive statistics and regression analysis (multiple and logistic) were undertaken. The findings confirmed that SMTEs are faced with challenges that affect their sustainability and entrepreneurial success. Results showed that tourists indicated their perceptions of the small tourism businesses in terms of the poor infrastructure to access the accommodation facilities, the location and condition of the facilities and the service provided. It also became clear that public bodies did understand tourism policies, though they did not have a reliable database of Small and Medium-Sized Tourism Enterprises (SMTEs) to provide them with support. In addition, it was apparent that they did not provide them with all types of support, more especially those that were established in the rural areas. The recommendations for future studies mention that the study should be replicated in other provinces, more especially in the urban areas for comparison purposes of the application of intuitive competitive intelligence practices for entrepreneurial success for SMTEs. A study of the performance of district and local municipalities should be undertaken to determine the causes of the problems that affect tourism activities and to try to solve them to enhance the performance of both small and big businesses. In addition, to assist by developing strategies to attract tourists to the ECP. As well, determining how the combination of external and internal intuitive competitive intelligence factors influence the corporate innovativeness, operations and performance of small and medium-sized tourism enterprises.